Research groups > TargetsLab Oncology

Another line of research focused on both breast cancer and lung cancer, it is three-dimensional cell cultivation focused on the study of the mother cells of the tumour, thanks to the support of the Carlos III Health Institute, the Ramon Areces Foundation, the Ministry of the Economy and Competitiveness, and the pharmaceutical company Astrazeneca SL.

The project focuses on the study of the tumour mother cells, that they represent a small percentage of the cancer (10-20 %) but they have the capacity to start a tumour and they present resistance to the chemotherapy, fact that favours the appearance of relapses.

Research into this malignant cell population is limited by its low proportion. In the laboratory, cells are normally grown in two dimensions (2D), but this method has been shown not to suit this population, since it reduces it.

One alternative is three-dimensional (3D) cell culture with scaffolds, three-dimensional matrices made up of a mesh of filaments that provide support for cell growth and adhesion in three dimensions.

Our research group, together with studies by other groups, has demonstrated that three-dimensional cell culture with scaffolds expands the tumour stem cell population, which allows them to be studied and new targeted drugs to be developed against this malignant population.

Our study into three-dimensional cell culture is therefore based on: